I loved hotel rooms growing up.  They meant vacation, mini fridges, indoor pools, and perhaps most exciting – jumping from bed to bed with no fear of consequences. 

I suppose my parents could have squelched my passion for hotel room jumping by teaching me valuable life lessons like “treating other people’s property with respect” or “walls hurt when you hit them” but fortunately for me my folks picked their battles and let me be a kid.

In true Clark tradition, my children now relish hotel rooms and the uninhibited joy they bring.  But I don’t want my kids to just jump at the Holiday Inn.  My passion is that they jump at the park, in the classroom, and with their friends.  To be honest, my goal is to keep my kids jumping for their entire lives.

Isn’t it crazy how much momentum kids have in their lives?  They’re  almost impervious to failure – when they jump and come up short, they just get back on the bed and try again.  When they overshoot their goal and hit a wall, they pick themselves up, make a mental note and try again.  

I think life is a hotel room and where  we stop along the way, beds.  As Christ followers we are on one long trip, our destination is clear, the duration unknown.  It seems however that somewhere between 5 and 50 we lose the joy of the jump.  We begin to take comfort in the 800 thread count sheets, pull the covers over our head and wait for the journey to end.  Maybe it’s a fear of what other people think, or what might happen if we check out of our current circumstances and move on, perhaps it’s our not too fond memories of the wall we hit the last time we jumped.

Whatever it is – I want to be five – I want to be on vacation – I want to jump – and I want you to as well.

Remember this:  Momentum dies in my life when I allow people, circumstances, or my past to author my life instead of embracing my responsibility to prayerfully decide my direction.

God is good – Josh